[CLUE-Adm] 501c3 NPO for LUGs

[Jeffery C. Cann]

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Greetings Kara!

My name is Jeffery Cann.  I am the President for the Colorado Linux Users and 
Enthusiasts (CLUE).  We are the LUG for the Denver metro area.  
(http://clue.denver.co.us)

Today, our admins got together to discuss your proposal for a parent LUG NPO. 
 We are all for it!  We currently receive generous sponsorship from local 
Linux companies.  We believe that NPO status would help us solicit for 
additional sponsorship.

Here are some of our current challenges and their relationship to NPO 
status:

1.  Meeting site is donated.  Currently about 60-70 people attend.  No matter 
where we meet, we are always out of space!  Unfortunately, most companies do 
not have large meeting rooms available after hours.  In addition, renting 
meeting space from a hotel or public library is rather expensive.  If we were 
an NPO, it may be easier to find accomodations which can be tax-deductable by 
the landlord.

2.  Projection equipment is borrowed.  We would love to be able to get a nice 
InFocus projector for monthly meetings (or whatever events).  We were going 
to hold a raffle to generate funds to purchase our own InFocus projector.  
One of our sponsors donated Linux certificates to 2 education classes (valued 
at $1500 each).  Unfortunately, the laws in Colorado are quite strict and 
clear about raffles.  NPO status again could have helped.

3.  As a thank you to our loyal sponsors, we would like to be able to tell 
them that their contributions (for meeting space, web server, internet 
connections) are now possibly tax-deductable.

All of your suggestions are valid for our LUG.

* Accept formal sponsorships from companies
* Organize fund raisers
* Use an entity to pass sponsorships, speakers, etc through.
* Speaker's Bureau

Once you have additional details about the parent organization, we would love 
to get them to evaluate the opportunity for CLUE.

I already joined the majordomo at linuxusersgroups.org email list, so I expect 
to learn of any updates from there.  If not, please email me at 
<president at clue.denver.co.us>.  If you need more information or anything from 
us, please drop an email.

Thanks!
Jeff
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